Toby Stephens stars in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's second Philip Marlowe mystery. Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the '40s and '50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must strug...

The Kipling story Kidnapped was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on March 21st 1887, in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.

This BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Elizabeth Gaskell's tale of Manchester life is set in the 19th century when a series of bad harvests placed a heavy tax burden on workers. Gaskell's powerful drama, adapted here for Woman's Hour, is regarded as one of the most important novels of its time.

Charles Chilton's classic science fiction trilogy stormed the BBC airwaves during the 1950s. Its gripping story lines, extra-terrestrial sound effects and atmospheric music engaged the listener as never before. Between 1953 and 1958, a devoted audience of adults and children attentively followed Captain Jet Morgan and his crew from one cliff-hanger...

A short and dark story about three men, a father and two brothers, who make their living by poaching and other such illegal activities and are 'hard drinkers and quick fighters'. When tragedy strikes, the reaction of their community is not necessarily what they may have expected. An intense and brief study of a moody setting and unsettling characte...

The debut novel from Nadiya Hussain, winner of 2015's Great British Bake-Off, this is a charming, warm-hearted tale that illustrates the unique bond between four sisters. A story of faith, family and love, it perfectly embodies what it feels like to struggle with self-acceptance. Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae, the four sisters of the Amir family,...

Aberdeen's growing Polish community is under attack from a serial offender who leaves mutilated victims to be discovered on building sites - eyes gouged out and the sockets burned. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae is assigned to the investigation, codenamed Operation Oedipus, but with the victims too scared to talk, it's going nowhere fast. When the...

Richard Knox has served his time, so why shouldn't he be allowed to live wherever he wants? Yes, in the past he was a violent rapist, but he's seen the error of his ways. Found God. Wants to leave his dark past in Newcastle behind him and make a new start. Or so he says. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae isn't exactly thrilled to be part of the team h...

'You will raise money for the safe return of Alison and Jenny McGregor. If you raise enough money within fourteen days they will be released. If not, Jenny will be killed. 'Alison and Jenny McGregor - Aberdeen's own mother-daughter singing sensation - are through to the semi-finals of TV smash-hit Britain's Next Big Star. They're in all the gossip...

From the number-one best-selling author of Shatter the Bones and Birthdays for the Dead, a new crime thriller featuring DS Logan McRae. Detective Inspector Logan McRae is finally getting back on his feet after the events of the last few years. Putting things behind him. Getting better.... But it was never going to last. A body turns up on the outsk...

A little girl's body washes up just outside the sleepy coastal town of Macduff, kicking off a major manhunt. Officially, the investigation is out of Sergeant Logan McRae's hands, but DCI Steel's Major Investigation Team, drafted in from Aberdeen, is getting nowhere fast. Steel is running out of ideas and time. She wants Logan back on her team, and...

Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be do...

You've known her your whole life. Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother Laura. She knows she's always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she's a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in her life. but she's hiding something. Then one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence and A...

The world's most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot - the legendary star of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket-returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in 1930's London. Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front d...

Welcome to Mummy's world. The Boy Child Peter is connected to his iPad by an umbilical cord, The Girl Child Jane is desperate to make her fortune as an Instagram lifestyle influencer, while Daddy is constantly off on exotic business trips.Mummy's marriage is feeling the strain, her kids are running wild and the house is steadily developing a forest...

Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence, limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of electricity will course through her veins. Now the new government is in power, everything has changed. But only if you're a woman. Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are taken away and seventy mill...

1553. King Edward is on his deathbed, and the future of the Tudor dynasty swings perilously. Forced out of Spain by the Inquisition, Hannah Green arrives in a volatile kingdom. She is identified as a seer and sworn into the service of Robert Dudley, the son of King Edward's protector and a key player at court. Her task: to keep watch on Princess Ma...

Elisabeth Devine certainly rocked the boat when she arrived in Barton-in-the-Dale to take over as head teacher of the little primary school. Now it's a new term, and after winning over the wary locals, she can finally settle in to her role. Or so she thinks . . .For the school is hit by a brand-new bombshell: it's to be merged with its arch rival,...

Summer has arrived in Barton-in-the-Dale and as a new term begins at the little primary school, it's not just the warm weather that's getting people hot under the collar. Meetings with the teachers from Urebank School to discuss the merger are producing more than a few fireworks, a disruptive new pupil arrives, set to cause trouble, and a surprisin...

Dear Reader, Life is hard. We are a bombarded generation: Facebook, billboards, Twitter, Instagram, taxes, newspapers, watches monitoring our sleep, apps that read our pulse, terrorism. There's such an onslaught to the senses these days it's a marvel any of us manage to get out of bed. I love bed. I, Joe Lycett, comedian, wordsmith, and professiona...

Flora Mackie first crossed the Arctic Circle at the age of 12. Years later, in 1892, determination and chance lead her back to northern Greenland as a scientist at the head of a British expedition, defying the expectations of those who believe a woman has no place in that harsh world. Geologist Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan. Yearning for wi...